Daughters sick laptop - no bootable device!

richwhit

Hi all,

My daughters laptop is not working and just after some quick advice as to whether it's an easy fix or whether I'll have to bite the bullet and pay a professional to fix it for me.

When I boot the laptop up (bTW it's an Acer Aspire 5551 bought less than 18 months ago) the first screen that appears is:-

Black screen with Windows is loading files.... (taskbar) at the bottom of the screen.

Next screen is:-

Windows Boot Manager - Windows ahs encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer, blah, blah,

Status 0xc00000e9
Info: An unexpected I/O error has occured

Enter = Continue

Sooo, I press enter and get
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM
No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key

Any advices from someone in the know would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance, Richard

pogofish

Sounds like the hard disc has died.

Fitting a new one and restoring from backups is dead easy and depending on the fault, you may be able to recover some stuff from unaffected partions pretty easily via a usb/disc connector.

debitcardmayhem

Have you tried safe mode Keep pressing F8 when switching it on) Also are there any usb sticks/phones etc inserted.And do you have a disc with windows recovery on it (should have been made when the laptop was new)?

richwhit

Thanks for the advices guys.

Ok tried the f8 safe mode and no luck so I'm guessing I'm going to have to go the replace hard drive route.

So first thigs first I guess I need to buy a new hard drive? Is eBa the best place to start - any thoughts on want I need - my daughter uses her laptop for watching iplayre, facebook, all the usuals for an 12 year old girl.

If I have to install a new hard drive will I have to also buy and instal a new Windows systemn also?

Thanks in advance for any pointers first of all for a good hard drive.

Richard

Robisere

Hello
If you give some more information, I will get back to you later and try to help.
First, question daughter (gently please - been there!) about what new software, hardware, or discs she may have used. Also, what websites she may have newly visited - all before this happened to the laptop.

i suspect it may be a new device used which could have either been inserted/disconnected incorrectly, or some piece of software.

It will probably be necessary to recover the latop to a former (good) state, in which case you will need either the Windows disc or the Acer Repair/Recovery disc, which should have come with the laptop. Please find that if you can, see if there is any information about what may have been used, and I will get back to you when you post with that. (After my lunch!)

EDIT:
Started this before the other posts above. DO NOT BUY a new Hard Drive until I have got back to you!

Bogtrotter

Before you rush out and buy a replacement hard disk open the hard drive bay and make sure the disk is seated correctly.

I have seen in the past laptops which have maybe got a bump and the hard disk has been jarred loose causing a No Bootable Device error.

richwhit

Thanks Robisere - will have a chat with my daughter when she gets in from school and see if she remembers what she last used her laptop for (it was a couple of weeks ago).

It could well be that the disk has been jarred loose as I know it gets banged about abit unfortunately.

however,, I've no idea how to 'open the hard drive bay' - is this something a novice can do or should be be done by a professional??

Thansk guys, richard

richwhit

Ok - with the help of a youtube video managed to check the hard drive was seated correctly and it seems to be. Re-booted the computer same messages coming up so need to check with daughter about possible software or hardware she's used.

Not sure how much success I'll have here as it was a couple of weeks back when it died and I think she'll remember what sites she visited.

Also am now struggling to find the discs that came with the laptop!! Are these an essential or can I get replacements of need be??

Thanks, richard

Figment

The discs may not have been supplied with the laptop, it's more usual now for the laptop to come with a utility to create the discs - something the owner is meant to do the very first time they switch on.

richwhit

I'll be honest and admit that I think this is what has happened as I never throw anything away when I purchase anything PC, printer, etc;

So I'm guessing at this stage I need to buy a new hardrive circa £50?(any advices as to which one?) and then instal an operating system (Windows I'm guessing though v.quick search on ebay telling me Windows 7 circa £70!!)) Am i treading along the right lines??

Thanks, richard

robmar0se

Quite often hdd's do get corrupted and the drive is "logically" bad but physically okay - I'm not saying is, but one of the first things to do is to run a chkdsk c:/r on the drive, this often corrects the logical problem, and with luck gets you back up. However as the system is not responding, you need to remove the hdd and connect to another PC via a USB enclosure and then run the check (although it would be chkdsk disk:/r where disk would be drive letter allocated by the other PC).

external hdd enclosures are like this and are common, eg ebay etc: http://www.ebuyer.com/164630-startech-2-5-hard-drive-enclosure-sata-hi-speed-usb-black-sat2510bu2b